Land of Crime and Law
by Bullet Nick
Summary: A cat-burglar, a drugged clown, and a perpetually crabby thief create a makeshift gang to survive the cruel, unfair streets, while avoiding a blind, justice-driven cop and her bipolar psychic partner. But what seem like convenient alliances grow and keep them together, and old, forgotten friendships return in a world where unfairness dictates everyone's lives. Trollcops!AU
1. Desperate Measures

**Chapter 1: Desperate Measures**

The girl shifted her feet. She was getting tired of waiting. Nobody had shown up in about an hour. And it was getting dark. She sighed as she thought of gathering her few belongings and retreating to give up

for the day when she heard footsteps approaching. She turned and saw just what she had been waiting for. This was her chance! She took a quick look at him. Well, he certainly had some sense of fashion, and the somewhat flashy clothes really weren't her taste, but it didn't matter. Someone had come, and she could finally see if tonight she'd be luckier.

"Excuse me sir, could you spare some change for a hungry girl?" She asked with the most adorable set of cat-eyes she could make.

"Gah! Get away from me, you filthy land-dweller! Don't touch me, or you will be scraping for crumbs in a prison cell!" And with a huff and smug frown, he tugged at his clothes even though she wasn't even close to him as if her mere presence was poisonous. The purple-clothed troll walked away with undeserved pride and left the cat-like troll all alone in her dark alley.

She looked down with disappointment as she realised that she would not be having dinner tonight. She walked back to her allay, the only light coming from the distant and malfunctioning streetlights. She consoled herself by reminding herself that she wouldn't be all alone, as she looked at the cardboard box that held a small, white kitten she had named Pounce de Leon. Pounce was her only friend in this hostile and unforgiving jungle of a planet.

"Come on, Pounce, let's go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day, we can try again!" She cheerfully said to her loving pet. She had learned to take a positive yet realistic outlook on life on the streets. She knew sulking and giving up weren't going to fill up her belly, and she just had to struggle to survive. Her pet, however, seemed more concerned about the more immediate need to eat, expressed with an angry meow.

"Shhhhhh, be quiet, Pounce! We can't let them find us! Sorry, I couldn't get us any food...just go to sleep, please?" She asked her only friend, and after an annoyed stare, the cat settled in the cardboard box, trying to sleep. Nepeta settled on another, slightly larger box beside it, trying to push away the protesting growls in her stomach. For some reason, she'd been having less and less luck these days...no doubt the increased gang activity made people afraid to leave and streets and have some pity and kindness for unlucky people like her.

Ignoring the distant wailing of sirens, she closed her eyes and tugged at her blue fur coat, another one of her lucky finds during her street years to shield herself from the piercing cold which served as her only blanket, and tried going to sleep. Maybe tomorrow she should try another place, and she'd get some food at last...

====X=======

"Any spare change, sir?"

"No, sorry."

"A few coins, sir?"

"Fuck off."

"A coin for a hungry girl, please?"

This time he didn't even gaze at her.

Nepeta sighed, followed by an angry meow and a grumbling stomach. She hadn't eaten anything in two days, and even then it had been a measly meal. Dirty trash. She'd been lucky to find a half-empty quick-meal box buried in a trash can, which she quickly indulged in, sparing a little for Pounce, plus some scraps and unwanted, day-old meals from more wealthy streets shared between the two cat-eyed creatures. Nepeta knew she was sacrificing herself for her pet, but she'd rather be a little bit hungrier than completely alone.

====X=======

Nepeta was getting desperate. It had been four days since she had eaten anything, and a day without any clean water. Pounce was spending far too much time lying around looking like he was about to give up. Nepeta knew that sometimes life was unfair and that some people had no choice, but she hated stealing and taking things from other people. They worked hard to get them, and she didn't want to take them away from them…but her stomach didn't care. Pounce didn't care. The people she begged didn't care. Her legs, sneakily approaching the store didn't care. If she didn't eat very soon, she'd die. She figured that would be worse than some random store losing some merchandise.

Despite her reluctance, she was very skilled in breaking and entering buildings. Her cat-like behaviour made her silent, agile, helped her see in the dark, and gave her quick reflexes. Every so often she wondered if she was a mutant, and if that was why she was in the streets. But now was not the time for this, she had to focus.

With her sharp claws, her weapon of choice (and her only weapon of choice), she slowly removed the screws from the vent grates. She left Pounce just outside, in a back alley. She knew he wouldn't run away…he didn't have the energy to do so. She crawled inside and started roaming around until she found her target: a nice looking meat shop, closed down and abandoned. Even though it was dark, the cold coming from the place told her the refrigerators were left on to keep the meat fresh. Even though the meat would be a bit too cold to enjoy, she'd take it anyway.

She slowly crawled out of the vent, making sure to step lightly. She looked around quickly to see if there were any security systems here. Nothing so far…cameras? Wait…they were pointed in the wrong direction. If she moved quickly, she could move to the opposite corner before they turned. Before the camera caught up, Nepeta was already underneath it, invisible to the system. She saw another pointing right at the door that held the meat, locked up of course. Didn't matter, that wasn't her objective. It was the meat left on the counter and on the other side of the glass displays that she wanted. Shops were getting sloppy, she thought to herself.

In two quick and well-timed jumps, she found herself in front of the largest meat display she had seen in a whole year. She couldn't help but drool a bit in front of all that delicious meat. She didn't care about making it obvious. She stashed as much meat as her pockets could fit, holding one piece in her mouth, already half chewing it, and packing as much as she could. Always carefully doing it between camera switches, she quickly took enough meat to ration for a month. She hated doing this, but it was so worth it.

Nepeta quickly jumped back to the vent grate, not even bothering to close it behind her as it meant releasing the meat. She could almost hear Pounce meowing in painful hunger from here. Now, it was just a matter of fitting in there with all the loot, and then-

"That's a snazzy looking coat you got there. Where you'd get it, motherfucker?"

In a flash, Nepeta turned, released the meat, extended her glove claws and pounced on whatever was standing behind her and pinning it to the ground as she showed her fangs and growled at the source of the voice. But she wasn't expecting this.

A troll with messy hair, long curved horns, and…clown makeup on his face. Somehow the clown makeup, which might've looked silly in any other situation, only made her more unnerved right now. That wasn't helped by this distant look and smile on his face. He seemed to be a little too relaxed about the whole situation. Nepeta had no idea what to make of him, but she certainly didn't trust her.

"Whoa, calm down there, I ain't gonna scare you. Just chill, dudette." He said with a slightly raspy voice, and with a swaying tone that Nepeta found suspicious. One thing was for certain, his breath was ghastly.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, straight to the point. She didn't want to use her claws, but she would if she needed to defend herself. Just then, she heard a very low meow from the end of the vent. She realised Pounce was still waiting for her. She needed to get out of here quick.

"Whoa, hold up, sister, don't worry. I wasn't doing anything suspicious. I was just looking for some motherfucking pie, but I can't find it anywhere." Nepeta looked at him oddly. He seemed harmless, but he couldn't let her guard down.

Just then, she realised that she had tackled someone in the middle of the store and the cameras were pointed straight at them. Not just pointed at them, frozen in place. That's when she heard the mall doors opening loudly.

"Come on, Captor, they're going to get away! I can smell then, they're still here." A female cop was heard in the distance.

"It'd help if you didn't insist on making me ride on the roof on the way here, Pyrope!" The male partner said, with a slight lisp in his lips.

By now Nepeta had jumped off and ran back in the vents. She was crawling quickly, as fast as her limbs could carry her. Soon enough she found her exit, with Pounce waiting for her with weak eyes.

"It's okay, Pounce, it's okay, I've got food." She reassured the cat as she patted its head, and took out a small piece of meat and gently fed it to the cat as quickly as she could. When she saw the cat taking a bite, she smiled, glad that he understood that they'd be okay. She quickly grabbed the box and turned around to escape the alley and hopefully sneak around the cops, but standing just a metre away was that same troll that she saw in the store. Just…standing there.

"What do you want?" Nepeta asked, already checking behind her for an exit, a window, a fence to jump over, anything.

"…I'm really hungry." He replied, eyeing the meat hanging from Nepeta's coat. "And I haven't had some good pie in weeks…"

"Okay, just take some meat and leave!" She said as she hurdled a large chuck straight to the clown's face, and took the chance to run straight past him, but she was stopped straight in her tracks as from the shadows another troll jumped in front of her.

"You're not going anywhere!" The troll in front of her said in a rough and used voice, and even though he looked about as short as her, she could tell he was prepared to take her on. He was holding a sharp sickle in his hand, and from the looks of it, he was quite skilled with it.

"Pyrope, they're outside, hurry up!" They all heard and turned their eyes on the crudely parked police car just a block away, reminded that they were still being chased by the cops.

"Shit!" The short troll said, he quickly turned back to the cat-girl in front of him and his partner behind her, just now having stood up from the slab of meat. "Come on, Gamzee, let's go! And if you want to survive, run with us!" He shouted at Nepeta as the two male trolls ran as fast as their legs could carry them away from the cops. Nepeta, a little too worried about getting away and shocked, felt no choice but to follow them as they went down through the hallways they knew far better than any law enforcement officer.

They heard the siren of a cop car approaching them as soon as they cleared the first street. They ran for ten minutes, panting and keeping themselves warm on a chilly night with a tiring getaway. Nepeta struggled to not lose anything, and ended up beneath a dark bridge when the three of them decided to take a break. The short troll, who had nubby horns, took a brief look outside, wondering if they had lost them. After a few seconds, he seemed satisfied and turned back to his partner and the stray girl, who was still holding her box with a cat in one hand and slabs of meat on the other, looking relieved but exhausted.

At this point, her stomach was just too weak to keep her standing, and she collapsed on her knees, dropping the cat and the meat. She was just too tired. She was hungry and her legs hurt. And even though she had no idea who these two trolls were and what they'd do to her, she still feel flat on the ground, hearing only a loud thud and Pounce protesting as well. She only remained vaguely conscious for a few minutes.

"Shit. Gamzee, help me carry her."

"Sure. What we are gonna do with her?"

"I don't know. But we might need her. I think she's a good one."

"Honk!"

"Don't do that! Just help me move her. Jegus, she's heavier than she looks."

Once again, Nepeta didn't know when, where or how she would wake up. She just hoped that it was somewhere safe.

==X===X=====

"Dammit, Captor, they got away!" Terezi shouted as she looked around the streets but saw no signs of the burglars.

"Why are you blaming me?" Sollux shouted, clinging to the roof as his partner insisted. He cursed his stupid red and blue glowing eyes. This was worst that the hazing he got in training, except this time he'd be in big trouble if he blasted her. "Maybe if you could actually SEE where they were going and not taking those twisty streets, we might've got them!" He reprimanded her, really wishing he had stayed at the station tonight.

"Hmmm! Still, at least we got video of them." Terezi reassured herself as she sat back on her seat and left the car parked right on top of the bridge for a minute. She called back the station on the radio, and asked for confirmation.

"Positive. Two suspects. Image is fuzzy but we'll see if we can identify them by morning and see if they got profiles." A robotic voice answered from the other end.

"Gotcha. Too bad they got away, we might've served sweet justice so swiftly!" Terezi said with a huff, disappointed in an unsuccessful pursuit. She was getting tired of not catching any criminals, and the bipolar weirdo clinging to the ceiling wasn't helped. She didn't like new guys much.

But at the least she had to suspects on camera, two thieves that could be brought to justice and pay for their crimes! So far they only had two on camera, but she smelled three trolls running away from them. She hoped they had a good find this time, even if it was just carelessness from their part. "Okay then. Unit 6-1-2 abandoning pursuit. Heading back to HQ." Terezi said and turned the radio off. It looked like this was it for today. "Hold on tight, Captor!"

"Holy shit, Pyrope, you better kill me with your driving because I'll get to you first if you don't!" Sollux shouted from above, getting really tired of this new partner. He heard stuff about her, but he never thought she'd be this bad.

"Hehehe, you're funny when you're angry!" She said as slammed the gas to keep Sollux busy clinging to life, his shouting making them deaf to the sounds of two young trolls dragging a cat-girl thought the streets, and into the shadows.


	2. Makeshift Friendships

**Chapter 2: Makeshift Friendships**

Nepeta quietly groaned. Her head felt dizzy and dangerously light as she held it between her hands. As she came to her senses, she tried to understand what was going on. She was…lying down…eyes closed…lying against something softer than concrete ground, at least. Her stomach really hurt, and her legs felt like they had been on fire, and her bones felt brittle and about to shatter. All she could hear was the perpetual low rumble of the city and someone chewing on something, probably a few metres away. Slowly, carefully, she opened her eyes, hoping she wasn't in danger again.

She was indeed lying down, because she could see the dark sky above her, the stars looking as lonely and sparse as ever. She was between alleyways judging by the narrow space in between the buildings on either side of her vision. She figured she was still in the slums, but she could not tell exactly where she was. Slowly, with as much strength as she tired and hungry body could muster, she lifted herself off the ground and sat up. She saw that she had been lying on a stuffed garbage bag, serving as a crude mattress. Truth be told, it was better than whatever she had been able to claim for herself before.

But as she remembered hearing someone chewing, she sharply turned to her left, only to see the same long-horned, clown-faced troll eating something out of an almost-empty can with his fingers. It was greasy and she could not tell what it was, but all she could really concentrate on was the small adrenaline shot her body received as soon as she saw the clown again. Out of instinct, her legs commanded her to stand and her claws to extend, but the moment she stood on her two legs the pain flared up and she immediately feel flat on her face on uncushioned cement.

"Whoa, hey there, take it easy…" The clown said as he noticed her and started to approach her, discarding the empty can, not even worried about the clanking it made as it feel to the ground.

"Get away from me!" Nepeta said as she scrambled backwards like a threatened cat, extending her claws, all too worried about the fact that she could feel no energy in her limbs.

"Chill, little cat, I ain't gonna hurt you…here, I'll stay away, okay?" The clown said as he raised his hands in defence and stopped right where he was. "It's alright, don't worry…"

"Where am I? Why am I here?" Nepeta said as her mind raced but her body could only slump, increasing her panic.

"We're down by the eastern docks. Me and Karkat brought you here last night." He responded with a grin, as if it was something to be glad about. "We were all running away from the fuzz last night, don't ya remember? You feel to the ground like a log falling down…it sure was a miracle you were with us last night."

She could not understand how she could possibly be happy that she had been kidnapped and taken by strangers to a place she didn't know while she was unconscious. Now she was terrified of what might happen. He looked older than her…he didn't seem to be in his right mind…he had this…weird, unsettling way of looking at her…

Just then, another troll came running down the alleyway, gasping for breath as he leaned on one of the walls for support. He took a deep breath before gazing up to the clown and the cat-girl. "Holy fuck, the midbloods are getting worse every week! They had a security alarm with fucking lasers! Are they living in houses or building fortresses against alien invasions?" He then paused to register the helpless look on the cat-girl. "Oh hey there. You can thank us for saving you later." He said as he stuck his hand beneath his sweater and took out a loaded paper bag.

"Saving me? What are you talking about?" Nepeta asked, no less unsettled to be facing TWO unpredictable trolls while she could hardly keep her arms raised.

"Oh, didn't you get the memo? We saved your fucking life last night." He said as he started to unload the paper bag. A couple of pieces of jewelry, some food, cash, one or two credit cards…

"You cornered me last night!" Nepeta cried angrily, almost hissing at the two kidnappers. Even if she was homeless, it felt like kidnapping.

"Yeah, about that. We're sorry, okay? We were trying to survive. Look, we helped you escape the cops, and we brought you back here because you collapsed to the ground. Jeez, try to help a fellow runaway troll out, give them the best blanket we have, and this is the thanks I get? Being pointed at with sharp claws and shouted at like I raped a fucking neighbourhood? Yeah, that makes me so glad I was a decent troll for once in my shitty life." He spat at her as he organised the loot and examined the food. Meh, it was good enough for them anyway. It had to be, 'cause they'd run out pretty soon.

"Hmph! I didn't ask you to help me!" Nepeta said, properly looking at the two trolls. The nubby-horned one had a face that seemed to sport permanent scowls and frowns. He was skinny but wore a very used and dirty black sweater that probably kept him warm better than anything else, with a strange grey logo in the middle, and plain grey pants, kept as best as a homeless thief could manage. The clown was wearing polka-dotted pants, and a t-shirt with a very worn purple-ish logo in the middle, illegible at this point. She remember from last night hearing something…the tall one was Gamzee? And the short one…Gamzee had called him Karkat…

"Karkat's got a point, though…if we don't help out fellow brothers and sisters out, then the world's just a lonelier place. Gotta believe in the miracle of kindness, right?" The tall one said, with the same look but his tone sounded more friendly to Nepeta's trained ears. At least then his smile didn't look so creepy. All in all, the fact that they weren't attacking her or that they didn't hurt her or…touch her…was as good a sign as she could expect from them.

"Well…okay…thanks, I guess." Nepeta said as she draw the claws back in again. It was then that she realised all over again just how tired she was. Her head slumped to the corner of the corridor, feeling so very tired…she hadn't eaten in…at least four days…maybe five? She didn't know anymore…

"Hey, take this before you die on us." Karkat said as she noticed her lying with no energy. He then pushed one of the pieces of meat that Nepeta had stolen, with some old fries he and Gamzee had managed to scrape on their last venture. "You better appreciate this, because this is a fucking buffet compared to what our stomachs usually have." He said in a raspy voice.

Nepeta took one look at the broken plate that was once whole, with good-enough-looking food on it and immediately started to chew and bite the meat and fries like never before. She ate with no manners, quickly, ravishing every meat tissue and gulping a bit faster than she knew she should, but she didn't care. All she needed to know was that it was food, and it was good. Good enough to survive. It was only a moment until she realised-

"Wait…where's Pounce?" She asked, stopping in the middle of her meal and looking around frantically.

"Pounce? Who the fuck is Pounce?" Karkat asked, wondering what could be so important that she'd stop eating the meal he prepared for her.

Nepeta started searching through every box and bag near her, until she heard rustling coming from the shadow of a garbage can, and out came Pounce, looking just the way she remember him. "Pounce!" She said as she leaped to her cat and held it close and felt so glad to at least have one familiar thing for her.

"Holy shit, does that cat give you superpowers that regenerate your strength or what?" Karkat asked, incredulous to the apparent devotion this girl had for her pet. Frankly, it was a waste. One more mouth to feed. At least a cat had the ability to hunt for itself and have its territory. Out of all the pets, it was probably the best, though, he thought.

"Pounce's my friend, and I'm not leaving him!" Nepeta said as she brought him closer to the meat and started feeding the cat. He had already hunted some small Alternian vermin, but he definitely enjoyed the taste of this meat.

"Heh, that lil' fella followed us all the way from downtown. Looks like he really likes you." Gamzee said, his smile looking less creepy by the minute. At least he was mellow…he looked harmless enough, if you didn't think too hard about it. "My name's Gamzee. Nice to meet you, sista. What's your name?" Gamzee asked as he outstretched a hand, patiently awaiting the same.

"I'm Nepeta, thanks for helping me, Gamzee." Nepeta said as she shook back. She turned expectantly towards Karkat. Even though she already knew his name, she'd like the courtesty…

"Aw, come on, don't be crabby, lil' guy…she's a nice girl, she'd love to know who we are…" Gamzee insisted, and Karkat took a moment to groan and finally face Nepeta. "My name's Karkat, you're welcome for saving your life, and as you already know, Gamzee's my partner."

"He means friend."

"Goddamn it, Gamzee, we've been over this! We're trying to start a gang, not a fucking club. We're here to survive, not exchange disgusting facts about our lives and enjoy our little circle of homeless small talk."

"Don't mind him, he's just crabby because we don't have food. Don't worry…" He strained his mind for a second. "Nepeta, miracles are there for those the motherfuckers who need them."

"Enough with your stupid miracles, Gamzee! I told you, the only miracle is that the universe hasn't opened up a gigantic asshole in the sky right above our heads and shat even more on us and haven't drowned in the filth we call food!"

Gamzee just continued to look placid and stare at Karkat unflinchingly. "Man, you sure have been blessed with some wicked methapors, brother…I need to know your motherfuckin' secrets someday, you know?"

Karkat could only respond with another growl and frown as Gamzee seemed completely unfazed by absolutely anything the universe could throw at him. "Just shut up and keep taking your stupid sopor slime, Gamzee. Don't make a whole fucking pie, though, you know we don't have much left."

At this point, Nepeta had been nervously observing the exchange between chews, but at this point her curiosity peaked. Sopor slime? Wasn't that…very illegal, and also dangerous? "Um, sorry to interrupt, but…sopor slime?"

Karkat remembered the third troll in the alleyway and happily tore his face off Gamzee's unchaging look. "Yeah, turns out Gamzee's a sopor addict. Even since I've known him he just bakes pies of the stuff and takes them every day. And he never tells me why, he just says that if doesn't get his fix, then 'the miracles run out'. I don't any of the shit he says, but all I know is that it keeps him calm and working, so what the fuck, we just keep getting the stuff. Cops are making it tight, though. Regulations and shit. Even doctors are keeping away from it, with good reason. Gamzee's the only idiot who eats the stuff."

"Aw man, if you knew the things you could see with this stuff…you'd see the mothefuckin' miracles everywhere!" Gamzee exclaimed as he searched for his half-finished pie between the smelly bags. He didn't even seem to care about the insects that were gathering in his shoes. Nepeta, however, was staring into empty space. This brief talk was enough to remind her of certain things…what she'd been through…what she'd done…what she had taken…how long she'd been on the stuff…it had been a long time since she had thought about it. It didn't matter. It was in the past now. She felt Pounce bumping into her arm. She smiled softly to the cat and finished the meal. Truth be told, it was pretty good, at least for her.

She looked back at the two trolls. Gamzee was quietly eating his slime pie again, unconcerned with anything else in the world. Karkat was on the opposite wall, apparently building some kind of fort from boxes, bags and the odd piece of wood or plastic, apparently making a third extension. It was eerily quiet beside from quiet eating and building. Nepeta looked around herself…she realised it had been a long time since she had any companions other than Pounce. It had been a very isolated life…she had one or two "friends" before…but it was just people in the same situation, and none of them seemed to care about making any connections.

She understood them, she did…some just couldn't spare the energy or time to devote themselves to anything but survival. Still…Nepeta knew she was not one who liked to live alone. That was why she kept Pounce…she always wanted someone or something else to be with her, someone to talk to and befriend. Being lonely was something she could tolerate, but didn't really want to. Her "friends" back when she was living in what could only be described as a cave all ended up caught, arrested, or worse, killed. Nepeta learned to go out and hunt for herself, rely only on herself.

But these two…they looked different. She could tell despite the shouting and anger, these two were friends, somehow. But even more, they had given her a comfortable place to rest, food, helped her get away…why? Why were they helping her?

"Ummm, excuse me…" No response from either. "Karkat?"

Karkat stopped building the makeshift roof for a moment and paused to look at the green with the weird blue-furred coat and green jacket, with the green logo in her t-shirt. "What is it? I'm kinda busy here if you couldn't tell, making sure we have a place to be in so we don't wake up as icicles covered in frozen snot." Nepeta didn't really mind the scowl, it wasn't too bad, she just wanted to know.

"Why did you help me? Why are you being nice to me?" In a world where nobody cares, where it was every troll for himself, why was this small, angry little thief actually helping her?

He paused for a moment, almost to look down in some kind of secret shame, before looking up to her. "Look, let's cut the crap and get down to business. Nepeta, we need food, badly. And Gamzee needs his sopor slime or Gog knows what'll happen. Maybe the universe will turn into cake or his head with explode, I don't care. And Gamzee told me what you did last night. Now, you're not an expert in theft, like me, but I know skills when I see them."

He took a breath and stood up with a firm back. "Basically, consider yourself lucky enough to be invited to be a member of the Karkat gang, of which I am its undisputed leader, and to whom you'll have to follow every order if you agree to be part of this. I want only good people on my team who can actually do something useful, and I'm willing to give you a shot, even though you are a bit of a weirdo."

"I'm not a weirdo! I just like cats, okay?" Nepeta asked, somewhat defensively. She didn't know what Karkat's take on mutants was, and she didn't want to risk it. If he was offering her a chance to be part of a gang and have a better chance of survival, plus actually have someone to talk to…well, she didn't want to spoil her chances. "But okay, I'm in."

"You are? I mean…yeah, great, excellent. From now on, I am your leader, and that means you do what I'll say and you'll stick together with me, alright?"

"Sure thing, Karkitty!" She responded, making up a nickname on the spot. It seemed to fit him, though, he was just like a cranky cat.

"What? I hate that. Don't call me that. My name is Karkat, and you better learn it, because someday, it'll be an important name here, alright?" He asked, befuddled as to this girl's eagerness. He thought she was crazy, but frankly, he kinda needed something different right now. One thief was good enough, but two could be the tipping point for success. "And I don't want you to get too attached to any ideas, alright? We're not here because we like each other, we're working together so we don't die and don't eat as cat food, okay?"

"Don't worry, Pounce wouldn't eat you! He prefers the hunt anyway." Nepeta joked, but Karkat kept his scowl. Oh well, Nepeta was sure that she could get used to this. In a way, deals between homeless people were a lot less ceremonious and lengthy than those of highbloods or even most midbloods. It was a simple agreement to work together, because they could survive better that way.

Nepeta spend the next hour playing with Pounce, to Gamzee's delight and Karkat's groan of disapproval, insisting he wouldn't build a shelter for the thing, but Nepeta smiled and said that Pounce liked boxes more than anything and it'd be enough. Soon, a third shelter was done. It was small, just two walls and the alley's wall, with a roof on top, and no real protection from the wind, but it was a hole to be claimed, anyway.

Gamzee was the first to slump on his spot and quickly started snoring. Karkat spent some time taking care of his sickle, to which Nepeta didn't ask anything about yet. Soon he went back inside, his hole covered by a torn sheet, with a crab-like design. Pounce even settled on a new box, already settling in to a new street. It was no different than before.

Nepeta was the last one to go to sleep. The last time she had gone to sleep, she had felt in danger, afraid, and cold and hungry. Now, she was fed, she had some companions, and even though the docks were colder, the wind didn't blow and that kept the warmth at a good level. Nepeta didn't know what to make of all this…but she figured that she wouldn't worry too much about it.

She crawled into her hole, too small and a bit smelly, too. She brushed off pieces of junk and cans, and lied down in whatever comfortable pose she could fit. The mattress she used earlier turned out to be Karkat's, she learned when he reclaimed it. But it was alright. Right now, she had a glimmer of hope inside her, a reason not to worry about being so hungry anymore.

She purred as she went to sleep that night. Karkat didn't mind having something to listen to other than Gamzee's snoring, and it was oddly soothing. He just hoped that this time he placed his trust on the right person, and hoped that he wouldn't be betrayed again.


End file.
